Ask Us: Long wait for restoration of Steamboat Gothic House to be worth it

Q. Do you know what is going on with the Steamboat Gothic House? It seems like they have been remodeling it for five years now.

A. Judy Perszyk, vice chair of the Huntsville Historic Preservation Commission, calls the restoration of the Steamboat Gothic House "quite the story."

She says it's the story of one of the most extensive and unique renovations of a historic structure in Huntsville.

"They are doing an extremely high-level, historically accurate restoration of the house," she says. "They are doing more research than I have ever seen done, except for the Episcopal Church (Church of the Nativity downtown)."

The renovation, she says is being done by Todd Sims, owner of the Steamboat Gothic House. Perszyk describes Sims as "very much the preservationist."

In 2006, Sims, a resident of McCullough Avenue in northeast Huntsville, led a petition drive to add 146 homes to the Five Points Historic Preservation District. In an April 2006 story in The Times, Sims likened the city's historic districts to "a walking textbook of the way things used to be."

The Steamboat Gothic House was built in the late 1800s, says Perszyk, and is the only house of its kind in Huntsville.

"They got photographs from the 1800s and early 1900s," she says. "They have talked to family members who lived in the house. They are doing a historically accurate restoration."

The house was moved several years ago to the downtown historic district, Perszyk says, and turned into a commercial structure.

Respect home deservesAbout five or six years ago, Sims and other family members began the restoration of the home, Perszyk says.

"They actually took old photographs and had custom-made columns to the size and shape of the (original porch)," she says. "They took scrapings of paint and sent (them) off for analysis to have the original colors put back on the house."

She says windows and doors, among other things, are also being returned to their original locations.

"It has been a very time-consuming effort on the house, to take it back and give it the respect and be the steward that it deserves," Perszyk says. "A lot of people have asked questions because it has taken so long. It's a very significant home in Huntsville."